OT: Apple Mac computers

Yup, with AV off (or passive) then XP is relatively snappy on by today's standards relatively low end hardware. Win2K even more so. (having said that the UI of Win95 on a P90 flies in comparison to a modern computer with the vast bulk of IE glued into its UI)

Got caught by a real one once in 1988 by booting of a friends Amiga floppy - nothing since.

Other than sweeping virus laden emails into the bin, they are far less of a threat these days.

Professionally written malware and trojan downloaders that attempt to climb on from compromised web sites however are far more of a threat - it seems to be where most of the dead machines presented to us were brought down.

Indeed. Not too hard on a desktop system in some cases. A bit more tricky on a laptop of you are taking it to client sites and joining it to possibly compromised networks.

Reply to
John Rumm
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This is true. This runs in about 15 year cycles. We had big time sharing machines, then CP/M micros and PCs. Then a brief flirtation with thin clients and diskless workstations before going back to even bigger PCs. Now it's back to time sharing.

The big issue has become portability. Although WiFi has become quite ubiquitous and generally affordable at hotspots, there are still issues of connectivity at reasonable cost. For example, I can get a packaged data plan and 3G dongle for use in the UK, but roam elsewhere and the shekels tick up rapidly.

That and a reliable networking implementation.

They are popular at hairdressers and opticians for this reason. iMacs are brilliant for this type of environment.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Just a Toshiba M30 - nothing fancy, not even exactly new! 1400 MHz, 1.25 GB ram. I'd reckon way less than one failure a month - and it does hibernate several times most days.

Reply to
Rod

"For what they are"? Most of the like-for-like comparisons I've seen have come up pretty much even. See eg

formatting link
you do see is that it's easy to buy a PC far cheaper than a Mac. This is because there is no Mac equivalent at the very cheap end of the market - the Mac range stops while the PC range carries on down. But to compare the cheapest Mac against the cheapest PC is not a like-for-like comparison.

Pete

Reply to
Pete Verdon

In your opinion, there are many better browsers that don't come on a Mac.

You get one in windows too.

Is that any better than movie maker or any of the other free applications?

Really? Does it make multiple copies and keep them off site in secure storage? Its not a backup if it doesn't! Its a liability as some fool will think its a backup and lose all their work.

So it doesn't come with everything like you claimed then?

You don't understand "about". They were about £99 prior to the last release, probably the exchange rates.

So you agree with Apple defining the life of your hardware then? I prefer to decide when I want to scrap my hardware rather than have Apple decide that I have to upgrade to get the fixes and then tell me I can't upgrade because its too old and they can't be bothered with testing their software on their old products.

Reply to
dennis

It doesn't need AV software.

Reply to
dennis

Yes I gather from your other posts that you only expect a Mac to last about three years before you need to dump it.

As I said, user error.

Neither is OSX. Try downloading some programs and installing them. You can get some nice media players and stuff if you look for them. After you restore your Mac you can come and lie about it surviving if you want.

Just as well vista protects the registry from stupid applications then.

You just said you don't pay extra for upgrades, make your mind up.

applications easier, not. You may like to play with your OS, I prefer to run application software as it does something useful.

Reply to
dennis

You can get most of them for nothing for the Mac (and even for Windows)

Outlook Express? ROTFL.

Really. It will support multiple backup regimes using different hard drives. The point is that most standalone computer users don't bother making backups at all because it's too much trouble. Therefore something where it's only necessary to plug in a drive is a substantial improvement; plus it has a simple to navigate interface to recover old files.

It comes with exactly what I claimed.

Sales channel. Dealers sell for below Apple Store pricing.

The market determines that.

Just like Windows, you can decide. Beyond a certain point, software requirements overtake hardware. Nothing forces you to change if you don't want to.

One major advantage with Mac hardware and OS/X is that because the range of hardware is known, very thorough testing can be and is done at every stage. Drivers can be properly optimised and so on.

Reply to
Andy Hall

It does if you want to do AV work.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Actually it will last longer. Business users typically replace PCs every two years .

Following Microsoft instructions.

A high proportion of things that break in Windows require the user to get in and poke around with a registry editor. Each knowledge base article advocating this has a disclaimer that bad things can happen. It's very typical to have to nix dozens of registry entries for an application that has puked in the registry

Nothing is perfect. However, I have never succeeding in breaking OS/X despite what I load.

No need, I've used a few and never sustained OS damage.

If you can ever get it to install. As long as you have a suitable drive for the CD, you can achieve a good outcome with Vista

formatting link

It looks like you haven't understood the difference between updates and upgrades.

Updates and little or no functionality and are generally not charged

Upgrades do and are charged.

In that respect, different versions of Windows and different versions of OS/X have the same commercial arrangements.

The multiple screen feature certainly does, to pick one example.

It's precisely because I don't want to spend hours titting around with fixing Windows issues that I don't use it for serious work.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Is that iLife08 and iWork08? They are only £55 each as an upgrade (maybe Andy can get them free?)

M$ don't give free stuff, you get the OS and that's it, free now and free next week. Manufacturers bundle stuff with their PCs.

Movie maker supports upgradable codecs, so you can edit anything you can get a codec for. Its not pretty but it works.

Most negative comments are just plain lies.. Andy appears to be an expert at that.

Reply to
dennis

Yes but most people wouldn't be referring to a processor that's 20 years old when the current argument was on about software 7 years old.

However M$ don't include code to stop you putting XP on a machine that will run XP even if a bit slow. Apple do put code in their OS to stop it running on older Macs even though they could run it.

Reply to
dennis

Someone with windows ME and an an XP disk and no win2k disk.

40M is the maximum supported RAM BTW.
Reply to
dennis

Irrelevant as most copies of Windows are tied to a specific computer.

*That* stops you from installing onto other hardware (at least, legitimately).
Reply to
Rod

Will that be less than the three years you think a Mac will last?

Reply to
dennis

Well you are a stupid gobshite.

Reply to
dennis

I was going to say that :-)

I've lost the plot on this one, I haven't understood more than five words in the last 30 replies :-)

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

XPs end of life has not changed. Its a myth spread by anti vista people that it has changed. If you look at the road maps they are the same.

What has changed is the availability of OEM installed XP instances AFAICS.

More use than a five year old Mac. You can still get an OS that has upto date security fixes.

Who is talking about a professional environment?

Yes they would.

However they wouldn't be allowed to.

Reply to
dennis

Why do you boot it? I don't reboot mine, just close the lid and let it go into hybrid sleep. Its weeks between reboots. If I do reboot it takes about 20 seconds. I think my system is a bit slow, my daughters Tosh takes about 11 seconds.

Reply to
dennis

Ner ner ne ner ner.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

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